…..
Garfield Logan had seen many disturbing things in his life. The cruel experiments his parents did on animals as 'humane' researchers. They had claimed to do good when their baby boy had a better understanding about their research than they did. Forced to study, forced to regard their blind curiosity. Unearthly squealing kept him up at night; his little body shook with fear and repulsion in his bamboo cot, the recollections of Africa haunted him until now. Perhaps that's why he became a vegetarian. Vegetables don't scream.
Violence, direct or indirect, always had fascinated him. Not in the warped sense but in people's opinion on what was crossing the line between destructive and beneficial enthralled him. To Beast Boy, cruelty was cruelty. What was bad was bad and there was no line between. But this… This was wrong.
The former Boy Wonder's face faded out of view as he turned his head into the shadows. He held the brush back so Beast Boy could get a better look. The green changeling flipped on the flashlight, what he saw induced a fatal vision spin.
A body.
Not a junkie, not a hobo, not even adult. It was a child, struck down barely at the prime of life. Auburn hair caked with dark red jelly, eyes missing, the scratches around the solitary sockets indicated them being gorged out. Long seven inch deep gashes in the chest area, evident through the ragged green tee shirt.
Garfield wanted to say something, anything to break the weighted silence between the dead body and him. The words got lost in his mouth.
He returned to his first and only premonition.
-It was like looking through water. Flashing red and blue lights in his face, burning his eyes. Darkness enveloping him. Fire. Maroon-colored skies. Out of control feelings of helplessness twisting his colon. Then it was like looking through someone elses' eyes. Pale hands plunging into liquid. His hands felt the warm sensation. A menacing eye glaring at his face. Howling. Black deviate purple-
"Beast Boy!"
Robin gestured to him from the other end of the park. A white-haired officer that had been trying to talk to Beast Boy as he spaced, now threatened him with a hand on his gun holster, "Kid, I have to ask you to leave the area right now, or I'll have no choice but to use force."
"Whatever."
The green changeling stared deliberately at him, rejoining the rest of the Titans. Robin was shaking his head when he walked up. "I don't like this. This is the kid I saved from Rancid. Gabriel Bendson." Starfire gasped, a hand fluttering over her breasts, imitating the speed of her heartbeat.
"That little boy?"
"Raven knew him, too. There's a possibility that something might be coming after her-"
Garfield volunteered out loud, "I'll go check up on her; you know, see if she's alright."
Their leader agreed with the notion, "Good idea, we can handle everything from here."
As the teen prepared himself for flight, Beast Boy heard the alien woman say quietly to herself, rubbing her shoulders feverishly, "I do not wish to see the body."
He turned a reassuring smile at her.
"You don't have to. Want to come with me?"
Her bright green eyes traced back to Cyborg and Robin in an absorbed conversation. "I'm not sure Friend Robin would allow it."
"He's not the boss of you," Beast Boy argued. "If you don't want to, you shouldn't have to be dragged into it." Starfire sighed.
"I must, for the sake of my duty for this city."
The nighttime wind blew her straight, red hair to cover the side of her smooth, amber face. Beast Boy touched a soft tress, unaware that he had moved his body closer to her. He brought his hands around her neck to gather the rest and pushed them out of her eyes. Both emerald hands drew back, cradling her face. He said somberly, meeting her wonder-filled gaze, "I know this is the wrong place and the wrong time to ask, considering what's going on, but if after we figure out this... would you like to do something later?"
"I do not understand. What do you wish to do... there are many things to do such as doing the hanging out and- "
His jade eyes twinkled as he good-naturedly interrupted her, "You tell me." Starfire opened her mouth to speak when Cyborg shouted her name over the roar of oncoming sirens. Beast Boy didn't let go of her face, at least, not until he got an answer. She glanced at him anxiously, then removed his hands herself.
"I wish to come with you, but I cannot."
His pointy eyes drooped slightly.
"But if you wish to spent time with me afterward, then I shall comply with your wishes."
Starfire ditched the typical naive, girlish expression for something more confident. She whispered between a simple, breathless kiss, "...If you understand my meaning." Her name was called again, this time in unison by the two irritated Titans. Starfire called out perkily, "Coming, Friends!" The Tamaranean stepped out of his grasp, not bothering to fuss with her hair as it whipped around her.
Beast Boy watched her blissfully float away. He snapped out of his happy trance, shouting and dancing victoriously, "YES! I got a date with Koria! Go Beast Boy! Go Beast Boy!" A couple standing off to the side seemed confused to why a young man with green skin would be grinning in the middle of a murder investigation.
…..
Beast Boy went back to Titans Tower in higher spirits, humming a merry tune and bellowed up the first floor staircase, "Oooooohhhhh Raaaaaavvieeeeeeeee! Guess who's the man?"
As expected, there was no answer to his obnoxious yell.
'Probably preening in her magic mirror... stupid, booby-trap mirror.'
Garfield marched up to the second floor where his bedroom was. Something gleaming on the floor grabbed his concentration. He crouched down befuddled to scooped up two objects outside his door. A pair of shattered blue, see-through goggles. A tiny, curved butterfly comb.
"Do you trust me?" Terra exclaimed, smiling brightly.
He answered the ghost in his memory, "...More than anyone I've ever met."
Garfield bowed his head for a moment for that lost soul, tucking the objects in his belt. An old wound slowly opening. He muttered, "What kind of sick joke is this?" The hairs on the back of his neck bristled. The hallway was not empty. His eyes peered upwards to the only source of light, the blinking, overhead light above him showed a dark outline of a man leaning against the wall. He didn't make the slightest movement.
His heart hammered in his eardrums.
Maybe the guy didn't see him… maybe if he was really quiet… he could sneak away without getting caught…
Beast Boy crawled backwards on his hands and feet. He could have been safe if his hand hadn't noisily smacked on the staircase door. The stranger would have heard him now. The green changeling yelled out of fear, as he sprinted down into the operations center, dodging whatever he thought could be at his back. Beast Boy stumbled into the center.
Sitting on a stool nearby, appearing to be calmly staring into her hands, was Raven.
He panted, waving his arms madly about. "R-Raven! Raven! There's some dude in the Tower, we gotta g-!" Beast Boy ceased mid-wave.
She remained hunched down with her back facing him, her shoulders naked of Robin's jacket, exposed with her form-fitting shirt, long sleeves ripped out of its seams. On her legs was a black skirt that he had never seen before in his life. Her violet hair snarled. Raven shifted around on the stool.
He could finally make out her face and silently cursed himself for looking. Through the fluorescent lighting of the kitchen, tears shone on her cheeks. Dry trails were on her sallow skin. Her eyes held no moisture, but the clear pain radiating from them was enough to break his heart. Even a total mess, she had an unstoppable beauty. For a second, he felt the pressure of a childhood crush.
Raven stood up and took a step forward, but her stature was no longer hunched nor despairing. The color in her eyes disappeared along with all life.
Black shimmered. His primal instincts were going off, but he tried to console her. He would have crossed lava fields to make sure she was okay.
"Rae? What's wrong?" Her face indifferent, she summoned black flames with one hand.
Imperceptible power burst around her, flapping her skirt hem about her thin calves. Thrusting her palm out swiftly, Raven engulfed him in flames.
…..
Robin was worried.
Doubtless, he hated to admit when he was paranoid. At that moment when Gabriella Bendson fell into his arms, hysterically sobbing on the account of the carnage that was once her son, her little Gaby, his mind separated from his body. His thoughts were elsewhere. Something in him told him to go home.
Go to the Tower. Something not right. Too much time had already been wasted.
Beginnings of something dire, the very scent of it clinging to precious oxygen, filling his lungs with imaginary poison.
The lamenting mother found no relief in the embrace of the aloof, young hero and was carried off heavily sedated by paramedics. As the crowd became even more packed with prying and interested eyes of their citizens, his out-of-body experience threatened to progress further if not amber-skinned arms had shaken him.
"Friend Robin? Speak please."
His limbs became heavier as reality set in. He discovered her standing directly in front of him and grasping the soft flesh of her lower arms, releasing from the contact. The gravity in bright green burnt a hole in his head and startled him slightly. The only time he could ever remember seeing Starfire's attitude so somber was when she convinced him to leave the training room to work things out on a flawed trust. A trust he'd broken. A trust she'd broken. If there were deficiencies in trust, he thought love could overcome them.
…Had he been wrong?
Wrong? Him? The concept was unthinkable. His instincts were sharper than most.
He knew a higher ranking of physical and mental discipline than nearly every professional agent or detective. The concept was almost impossible. Truthfully, things weren't as impossible as they were. It became clearer to Robin as time passed. Especially around Raven, she shattered the mold of 'impossible'. He didn't know how to think of her. All judgment would be reserved for their serious discussion.
Starfire's uncertain hands touched the fold of his green sleeves. She had been waiting for him to say something.
"What is it, Star?" Robin said, quietly.
She bit her lower lip.
"I think we should go home. I have a strange feeling that we are needed."
"You, too?"
Starfire released him as he did the same. A long trembling breath escaped her. "I fear for our friends and I am not sure why." Robin gestured for her to follow, backing out of the mass gathering around the murder scene and to where Cyborg stood by the T-Car.
"We're leaving," he told Starfire. "Try calling Beast Boy."
She pulled out her Titans communicator and it rang unanswered for the entire trip. Starfire snapped the lid, murmuring restlessly, "It's getting worse." Above the sharp rocks in the bay, they approached their unlit building. Cyborg examined the entrance's mammoth double doors.
"You might have a good reason, Star. Who left the doors wide open?"
"Has another intruder broken in?" she asked, nervously.
"Weren't you suppose to change the code?" said Robin with an accusing tone.
"Man, I did! I'm just as clueless to what's going on as you are!"
Robin cracked his knuckles, unaware that he was doing it out of habit.
"It's too obvious. X has his ways. As long as Raven and Beast Boy are alright."
"They can handle themselves."
Cyborg sounded so confident, so believable.
'Pretty words,' mumbled a newly acquired cynical part of Robin.
They split up. After inspecting the closest room, the observation room, Robin found the place undamaged and untouched. The sun wasn't due to rise until a few more hours, so it was somewhat difficult for everyone to walk around. The robotic man disappeared to fix the circuit breaker and came back into the room within seconds, electricity dimming on and off.
"Red X messed with my systems pretty good."
"Find anyone?"
Cyborg replied, shaking his head, "I wonder if they got him and took off."
"Not likely." Robin switched to a different subject as the tin-man checked the security cameras. "You and Star talked to the police?"
"They don't know shit." Cyborg said, pressing a button on the switchboard annoyed, "There's no evidence."
"What do you mean there's no evidence? What about DNA testing from the clawing?"
Cyborg repeated, looking firmly at his tall leader, "Like I said, there's nothing. No traces of someone else's fingerprints or nails. It's like the kid was ripped apart by something invisible… by magic or-"
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Both Titans went into action, readying their weapons and skating down the corridor to the North side where the screaming still echoed deafeningly. Into the operations center where visual quality was quite decent. Robin sprinted across the lounging chairs to the alien woman who glanced at her environment with tiny eyebrows rising on her high forehead. He panted, clutching at the knot in his side, "What's going on? Starfire, are you alright?" She kept glancing left, very confused.
"I am fine, Robin."
"Then why did you scream?"
Her red eyebrows scrunched together further.
"I was not the one who did the screaming," she said.
Cyborg cut in, protesting, "But we heard it come from here."
Starfire shrugged dumbly, eyes staring to the side.
"It was not me."
…..
The Angel of Death existed. And she wore a gauzy, black skirt.
Shadows which lingered to this neglected building devotedly parted without query. His Angel of Death hovered several feet above his motionless, prone form to the cold, concrete below. She sat mid-air, crossing one leg over the other as if she were seated primly in a high-back throne. "Do you want the pain to end?"
A weak moan rang out along with a sputtering wet cough.
Black glowing came from ill-omened eyes, framing the arch of fine, dark eyebrows.
"I have to admit, you are a lot stronger than I thought you were… Should we push it to the limit?"
There wasn't an answer this time.
"You aren't tired yet, are you? You certainly had more energy when you were screaming." She clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "What happened to your light?"
"No…"
Raven lowered herself to the ground, her skirt rustling. "No what, Beast Boy? You need me to stop hurting you? You need me to stop talking? If you need something..." She patted his blond head briefly with a jerky movement. "Don't be afraid to speak up." Again, no reaction from empath gazed down at the changeling's battered body laying facedown. With unnatural delight, she took in his broken shoulder blades, how the socket in his right leg popped out and twisted away, and the blood pooling around his face.
"I hope you're not getting too down on yourself, Beast Boy. It's not entirely your fault that you're here. If Starfire had stayed behind at the Tower like she was suppose to, then the roles would have been switched. She was the one having the bizarre dreams and getting the warnings. They were meant for her. But you've proven to be just as entertaining." She chuckled at this. "Although, I would have liked to hear her cry as I slit that tender neck of hers-"
An angry, gurgling growl broke from Beast Boy's throat as he violently lunged up, pulling her down and digging his nails into her wrists.
Raven threw her head back to howl…
...In laughter.
"So there is a Beast in you." She flung him aside roughly and Beast Boy squealed in pain, falling silently onto his side. Stealthy footsteps caught her finely tuned hearing and an expression of irritation shown on her gray face. "What do you want, you little pickpocket?"
The man in black and red said back, just as irritated, "You're lucky I don't get offended easily. Are we gonna kill the Teen Titans or mess with their friend all day?"
"Patience is the key to success. They'll come looking, let your Boss handle these affairs."
The thief snorted. "I better still be getting paid."
Raven sneered at him.
"Your hide is being kept alive, that's your payment. Did you leave them directions?"
"As instructed." X eyed Beast Boy as green changeling groaned lightly, asking, "What are we going to do with him?"
Raven's voice came out mechanical, like someone had adjusted her voice box. Black eyes contracted with sick pleasure. "Like I said, let your Boss handle these affairs."